The Albert Dorman Colloquium Series - Fall 2024

4:00pm - 5:30pm | Campus Center, Ballroom A

Fireside Chat with Barron Witherspoon

Join us for an enlightening fireside chat featuring Barron Witherspoon in conversation with Larry Pelham. Together they will delve into Witherspoon’s latest book, The Black Exec: And the Seven Myths, offering profound insights into his personal journey and delivering practical guidance and cultural critique aimed at dispelling corporate stereotypes. This event promises to be a thought-provoking exploration, blending personal narrative with societal reflection. Whether you're a seasoned professional, an aspiring student, or simply curious about diverse perspectives in corporate culture, this discussion welcomes everyone to engage, learn, and broaden their understanding.

Barron Witherspoon is a former Proctor & Gamble senior executive and a respected thought leader. As an in-demand speaker, top-selling author, and dedicated mentor, Barron is passionate about sharing his knowledge to empower future executives to climb the corporate ladder even as they navigate multiple, myth-based challenges. Drawing from a successful 35-year career at P&G, Barron offers tangible strategies that emerging young leaders can leverage to combat these false narratives and embrace the truth that they belong, are needed, and have the power to unapologetically reshape the future.

11:30am - 5:00pm | Meet at the first floor lobby of the Martinson Honors Hall 

Study Tour: A Tour of Trenton’s Architectural and Urban Form

Michael J. Hanrahan B Arch '96H MS MGMT '96; Partner, Clarke Caton Hintz, PC; ADHC Board of Visitors

On this tour of Trenton’s downtown and the Roebling Wireworks, you will experience the extraordinary breadth of Trenton’s architectural history, from the days of its earliest European settlement in the late 17th century, through the city’s remarkable transformation during the industrial revolution, to its post-industrial changes and current redevelopment. The City’s architectural and urban development will be put into the context of local, regional and national history, showing how these trends and events impacted Trenton’s architectural and urban form.

Mr. Hanrahan, AIA has been a key member of Clarke Caton Hintz for over 20 years. He has served as lead designer and project manager for many of the firm’s notable and award-winning projects. Mr. Hanrahan also has extensive experience in historic preservation and the adaptive re-use of existing buildings. He is particularly adept at taking practical advantage of the existing character of historic spaces. Past projects include the restoration of the Historic Hunterdon County Courthouse, home of the famed Lindbergh baby kidnapping trial of the 1930’s; 200 Elm Drive, the adaptive re-use of the former Princeton University boilerhouse as new University administrative offices; the renovation and expansion of the Roebling Mansion as the new home for the New Jersey State League of Municipalities; the 164th Street Garage, a new parking garage supporting the new Yankee Stadium; the new headquarters for the New Jersey Business & Industry Association; the new Sea Lion and Touch Tank Exhibit at the Turtle Back Zoo; and Engineering Hall, a new engineering teaching and research facility for the Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering at Rowan University. In addition to distinguishing himself professionally, Mr. Hanrahan has also dedicated his time to serving the profession of architecture. Since 1999, he has been actively involved in AIA New Jersey, culminating in his Presidency in 2011. For his service, he was recognized in 2012 as a recipient of the AIA National Young Architect Award. Mr. Hanrahan obtained a Bachelor of Architecture, with Honors, from the New Jersey Institute of Technology in 1996. Simultaneously, he earned a dual degree garnering a Master of Science in Management in the same year.

Bus transportation will be provided.

ADHC / HCAD Co-Sponsored Colloquium

11:30am - 1:00pm | Martinson Honors Hall 2nd floor, IDS1

MareMigrant: Digital Humanities and Immigration from the East Med to NJ

Speaker: Elektra Kostopoulou, Ph.D., Federated Department of History, Rutgers University / NJIT

The presented course is an invitation to combine digital technologies and oral history in documenting the process of urban change in Newark and the state of New Jersey, with specific focus on migration from the regions surrounding the Eastern Mediterranean Sea (Southeast Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East). Students are expected to engage with the material outside the classroom by completing fieldwork, visiting sites, engaging on the ground with communities, foundations, and agencies. Our main goal is to integrate relevant student projects with the construction of a website/data base that documents these migratory experiences.

Dr. Kostopoulou's research and publications address regional histories from the perspective of global queries, with a specific focus on population movements, genocide studies, minority politics, and international law. Geographically, her work revolves around the lands affected by Ottoman expansion in the modern era. Moreover, it touches upon the multiple after-lives of empire in the age of nationalism. Her most recent book project, Of Minarets and Minotaurs: The Story of Autonomous Crete (1898-1913), addresses regional autonomy as an example of the convoluted layers of colonialism, empire, and nationalism within the context of early 20th century globalization. She has been the recipient of various awards, fellowships, and grants and has taught at numerous universities in Greece Europe, Turkey, and the USA.

Global Studies Colloquium

11:30am - 1:00pm | Martinson Honors Hall 2nd floor, IDS1

Challenges of Achieving Biological-Scale Self-Assembly in Robotics

Speaker: Dr. Petras Swissler, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, NJIT

Self-assembly, the process by which hundreds or even thousands of individuals link their bodies to form structure, is often viewed as a path towards achieving maximum adaptability in a swarm of robots. When comparing state of the art robotic systems to examples of self-assembly in biology, however, we see that whereas ants will form structures with hundreds of thousands of individuals, robots typically form structures with less than a dozen. This presentation examines some of the potential reasons for this difference, as well as presenting work by Dr. Swissler that seeks to close this gap.

Dr. Swissler received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in 2012. He then worked in the aerospace industry for four years, during which time he worked on the design, inspection, and assembly of jet engines. He returned to graduate school to pursue his interest in swarm robotics, and received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 2022 from Northwestern University. Dr. Swissler joined the faculty of the MIE department at NJIT in Fall of 2022, where his research focusses on the application of self-assembling robotic systems in real-world scenarios.

ADHC / NCE Co-Sponsored Colloquium

2:30pm - 4:00pm | Martinson Honors Hall, 2nd floor lobby

Erwin Schulhoff: Forgotten Genius and His Relevance for 21st Century Artists

Speaker: Dr. Alexander Liebermann

This presentation will explore the life and work of Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942), a brilliant yet forgotten composer whose innovative music and creative spirit were tragically cut short during the 20th century. By revisiting his unique blend of influences, we will examine how Schulhoff’s compositions offer valuable insights and inspiration for contemporary artists in the 21st century. This presentation will incorporate musical examples and excerpts.

Alexander Liebermann is a German-French composer whose work blends diverse influences, including philosophy, biology, and astronomy. Recent commissions include a climate-change-themed monodrama for the Deutsche Oper Berlin and a birdsong-inspired wind quintet for the Brazilian Winds Ensemble. Passionate about nature, his transcriptions of animal vocalizations have been featured in National Geographic and have gone viral on social media. Liebermann holds degrees from the Hanns Eisler Music Conservatory, the Juilliard School, and Manhattan School of Music, and his thesis on Erwin Schulhoff earned him the Saul Braverman Award in Music Theory. He currently teaches at Juilliard and NJIT.

ADHC / HCAD Co-Sponsored Colloquium

11:30am - 1:00pm | Meet at the first floor lobby of the Martinson Honors Hall

Study Tour: Newark Arts Festival Walking Tour

Guide: Miriam Ascarelli

Join us for a walking tour of Downtown Newark highlighting locations where Newark Arts Festival exhibitions will be held. This will pave the way for you to return in your free time to explore exhibitions of interest at your leisure. 

This walking tour will be led by Miriam Ascarelli, a Senior University Lecturer in NJIT's Humanities & Social Sciences department. She is passionate about historical and contemporary Newark and is teaching a fall course titled How Newark Became Newark.

City Leadership & Civic Engagement Colloquium

11:30am - 1:00pm | Martinson Honors Hall 2nd floor, IDS1

Common Ground: Public Interest Design/Build - Methods for Building Community

Speakers: Erin Pellegrino and Charlie Firestone

Learn about the new ADHC course Common Ground: Public Intrest Design/Build - Methods for Building Community (ARCH 483) which will be offered as a service learning course in Spring 2025. The “Public Interest Design/Build” course is predicated on the belief that designing, making, and thinking are intrinsically interrelated. It offers students a tangible experience to translate their designs into physical structures. The course not only enriches the students’ understanding of construction processes, but it also establishes a deep-rooted connection to the Newark community. Students will be tasked with identifying areas within the city where design can contribute meaningfully to inhabitation of the public realm. Students will design interventions for these areas, prototype physical investigations and fabricate select components for installation.

Erin Pellegrino is a strategist, designer and registered architect with a decade of experience in the fields of design, business development and creative consulting. She is the founder and principal of Matter, a design/build firm that solves problems that span from brand and digital experiences to the built environment. Her practice has completed award-winning work in architecture, product and brand design and has been recognized globally for their work. She is also the co-founder of Out of Architecture, a career resource network and advising agency that helps designers explore non-traditional methods of practice. She is the co-author of the book, Out of Architecture: The Value of Architects Beyond Traditional Practice published by Routledge in 2022. Erin has taught widely in architecture and design fields at universities including Harvard, Cornell, Parsons, The City University of New York and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. At NJIT, she has re-started and leads NJIT’s design/build program alongside Charlie Firestone. She holds a M.Arch II from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University and her MBA from Quantic School of Business and Technology.

Charlie Firestone is a registered architect, educator, and builder. He is a partner at Matter – an architecture, design, and fabrication studio based in New York City. Previously, he worked as a Project Manager for Matiz Architecture & Design with a focus on higher education and non-profit clients. At NJIT, Charlie (alongside Erin Pellegrino) has re-started NJIT’s design/build program. With projects such as housing and support structures for Newark’s supportive housing communities, bird watching structures, and parklets. He believes that hands-on learning is an important part of an architect’s education, and he strives to incorporate it both into his own practice and his pedagogy. Charlie holds a B.Arch from Cornell University, and a M.S. in Architecture/ Option in Public Interest Design from Auburn University’s Rural Studio. His interests include design/build practice, socially engaged design, experimental structures, housing, vernacular architecture, and sustainable construction methods.

ADHC / HCAD Co-Sponsored Colloquium

City Leadership & Civic Engagement Colloquium

2:30pm - 4:00pm | Virtual

Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

Speaker: Dr. Douglas Tallamy, T.A. Baker Professor, Entomology and Wildlife Ecology; Professor, Biological Sciences; University of Delaware

Douglas W. Tallamy’s Nature’s Best Hope shows how homeowners everywhere can turn their yards into conservation corridors that provide wildlife habitats. Because this approach relies on the initiatives of private individuals, it is immune from the whims of government policy. Even more important, it’s practical, effective, and easy—you will walk away with specific suggestions you can incorporate into your own yard. If you’re concerned about doing something good for the environment, Nature’s Best Hope is the blueprint you need. By acting now, you can help preserve our precious wildlife—and the planet—for future generations.

Douglas W. Tallamy is the T. A. Baker Professor of Agriculture in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, where he has authored 111 research publications and has taught insect related courses for 41 years. Chief among his research goals is to better understand the many ways insects interact with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of animal communities. His books include Bringing Nature Home, The Living Landscape, co-authored with Rick Darke, Nature's Best Hope, a New York Times Best Seller, and The Nature of Oaks, winner of the American Horticultural Society’s 2022 book award. In 2020 he co-founded Homegrown National Park with Michelle Alfandari. His awards include recognition from The Garden Writer’s Association, Audubon, The National Wildlife Federation, Allegheny College, Ecoforesters, The Garden Club of America and The American Horticultural Association.

City Leadership & Civic Engagement Colloquium

11:30am - 1:00pm | Campus Center Atrium

The Indispensable Role of Young People in Democracy and Leadership

Speaker: Rashawn Davis, Executive Director, The Andrew Goodman Foundation

This inspiring talk highlights young people's incredible role, duty, and impact in driving social change. Through powerful stories and timely insights, this talk will challenge and energize young people to embrace their voices, lead with courage, and shape a more inclusive and equitable future for all.

Rashawn Davis is the Executive Director of The Andrew Goodman Foundation. He previously led Change.org’s Racial Justice Labs, investing millions in Black and Brown social entrepreneurs driving impactful racial justice initiatives nationwide. In 2018, he was appointed to Newark’s Police Review Board, helping to reform the city’s public safety apparatus. At 21, Rashawn also made history as one of the youngest municipal candidates in Newark. A dynamic speaker, he has presented at companies like Pinterest and institutions like CUNY and The New School. He holds degrees from Georgetown University and NYU’s Wagner School and serves on the W.E.B. DuBois Scholars Institute Board at Princeton University.

City Leadership & Civic Engagement Colloquium

2:30pm - 4:00pm | Martinson Honors Hall 2nd floor, IDS1

Sustainable Food Systems Jeopardy!

Speaker: Maria Stanko, Senior University Lecturer, Dept. of Biological Sciences, NJIT

Test your knowledge of sustainable food systems on campus, in the US, and around the world!  This colloquium will use a quiz show format to survey topics covered in courses on Sustainable Food Systems as part of the ADHC Faculty Fellows Program and highlight the contributions of students in those courses to our campus community. 

Maria L. Stanko, PhD, is an ecologist and a Senior University Lecturer in the Dept. of Biological Sciences at NJIT, where she focuses on curriculum development and undergraduate teaching. She teaches a variety of courses which share an emphasis on the scientific process and integration of concepts.

2:30pm - 4:00pm | Martinson Honors Hall 2nd floor, IDS1

Healthy and Resilient Building Environment: Applying Human-Centered Approaches with Data Sensing and Modeling Techniques

Speaker: Yanxiao Feng, Ph.D, Assistant Professor in SAET, NJIT

The ability of buildings and their surrounding environments to provide a satisfactory experience significantly impacts the comfort, health, well-being, and productivity of occupants and workers. While many research efforts have focused on improving the health and resilience in the built environment, the interactions between humans and these environments have not been comprehensively explored. Emerging technologies, such as smart sensing and computing, offer strong technical support for investigating human-centered approaches. This presentation presents research directions that focus on leveraging human-centered system design and development to enhance the built environment.

Dr. Yanxiao Feng is an assistant professor in the School of Applied Engineering and Technology at NJIT. She also holds a joint appointment in the Hillier College of Architecture & Design at NJIT. She leads the Lab for Intelligent and Resilient Built Environment which is dedicated to exploring intelligence, resilience, and sustainability in the built environment through human- centered approaches. She has participated in several projects supported by organizations such as U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Science Foundation (NSF). Holding the LEED AP BD+C certificate since 2016, she has been engaged in studying and researching approaches for sustainable buildings.

ADHC / NCE Co-Sponsored Colloquium

7:00pm - 10:00pm | Jim Wise Theatre, Kupfrian Hall

Peter and the Starcatcher - theater performance and talk back

'Peter and the Starcatcher' is a multiple Tony award winning Broadway and Off-Broadway play that serves as a prequel to the well-known Peter Pan story. In this play, we meet Peter before he was Pan, a young Starcatcher who teaches him how to fly, and Captain Hook while he still had both hands. Join NJIT's Theatre Arts and Technology Program for a night filled with wonder and imagination, pirates and orphan boys, Starcatchers and mermaids!

Purchase tickets here.

8:30am - 10:00am | Martinson Honors Hall, 2nd floor, IDS 1 & IDS2

Board of Visitors Roundtable Networking

Scholars will have the opportunity to learn from and network with Board of Visitor members of the Honors College in a roundtable format.

2:30pm - 4:00pm | Martinson Honors Hall 2nd floor, IDS1

My Entrepreneurial Experience as a Keurig Co-founder - A Conversation with Richard Sweeney '82, '18 (HON) 

Speaker: Richard Sweeney '82, '18 (HON), Keurig Co-founder

Join us for a conversation with Richard Sweeney as he shares his experience as an entrepreneur and a Keurig Co-founder. 

ADHC / MTSM Co-Sponsored Colloquium

11:30am - 5:00pm | Meet at the first floor lobby of the Martinson Honors Hall

Study Tour: Met Museum, NYC - Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350

Join us for a Study Tour to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC for a guided tour of the exhibit Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350. 

Global Studies Colloquium

2:30pm - 4:00pm | NJIT Makerspace

Make105: Introduction to Metrology and Measurement

In Make105 (Introduction to Metrology and Measurement), students will be introduced to precision measurement tools and print reading.

ADHC / NCE Co-Sponsored Colloquium

11:30am - 12:30pm | Campus Center Atrium

Understanding and Leveraging LLM Metacognition - Thinking about Thinking

Speaker: Sanjeev Arora, Charles C. Fitzmorris Professor of Computer Science (Princeton University) and Director, Princeton Language and Intelligence

A persistent question about Large Language Models (LLMs) is how well they actually "understand." The talk will present evidence that today’s LLMs display very good “understanding’’ of their own "skills." When asked to solve a task by combining a set of k simple skills (“test of compositional capability”), LLMs are able to do so despite not having seen those combinations of skills during their training. They show ability to reason about their own learning processes which is reminiscent of "metacognitive knowledge" in humans. For instance, given examples of an evaluation task, they can produce a catalog of suitably named skills that are relevant for solving each example of that task. Furthermore, such catalog of skills are meaningful, in the sense that incorporating them into training and reasoning pipelines improves performance (including of other unrelated LLMs) on that task. The skill catalogs can also be used to generate powerful synthetic datasets for Instruction-following and MATH We discuss mechanisms by which such complex understanding could arise.

Sanjeev Arora is Charles C. Fitzmorris Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University and Director, Princeton Language and Intelligence. He has received ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award (1995), Packard Fellowship (1997), Simons Investigator Award (2012), Gödel Prize (2001 and 2010), Fulkerson Prize (2012), and the ACM Prize in Computing (2011). He is a Member of NAS and a Fellow of the ACM and the AAAS.

ADHC / YWCC Co-Sponsored Colloquium

1:00pm - 2:20pm | Tiernan Lecture Hall 1

Activity-Based Sensing: Leveraging Chemical Reactivity for Selective Bioimaging

Speaker: Prof. Christopher Chang, Edward and Virginia Taylor Chair Professor of Bioorganic Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Princeton University

Traditional strategies for developing selective imaging reagents rely on molecular recognition and static lock-and-key binding to achieve high specificity. In this seminar, we will explore an innovative alternative to chemical probe design called activity based sensing. This approach leverages inherent differences in chemical reactivity to distinguish between analytes that are similar in shape and size within complex biological systems. This presentation will delve into the use of activity-based sensing to visualize dynamic fluxes of metal ions, reactive oxygen species, and reactive carbon species. Additionally, it will cover the application of activity-based proteomics probes to characterize targets involved in single-atom signaling.

Dr. Chang completed his B.S. and M.S. degrees at Caltech in 1997 under the guidance of Harry Gray. He then spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar in Strasbourg before earning his Ph.D. from MIT in 2002 under Dan Nocera. Following a postdoc at MIT with Steve Lippard, Dr. Chang began his independent career at UC Berkeley in 2004 and joined Princeton University in 2024.

Medical Humanities Colloquium

ADHC / JHCSLA Co-Sponsored Colloquium

11:30am - 1:00pm | Agile Strategy Lab, Central King Building (CKB)

Honors Interdisciplinary Research Forum

Scholars from ENGL102 Honors, STS 205 Honors, and ENTR 210 Honors will discuss their research from this semester. Engage with scholars as they showcase their digital posters and cast your vote for the top presentations. This forum will be highly interactive and an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas while learning about an array of research taking place across campus.